HC Deb 17 April 2002 vol 383 c954W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the policy of his Department is towards age discrimination. [42584]

Angela Eagle

The Home Office has made a commitment to provide staff of all ages and backgrounds with opportunities to maximise their skills and achieve their potential. This is incorporated into our employment policy on discrimination and is set out in our new equal opportunities statement. Continuing work to promote a diverse work force will include monitoring of recruitment, selection and appraisal statistics to ensure that age discrimination is not taking place.

The Department has recently completed a comprehensive review of its age retirement policy, resulting in a change in age retirement policy throughout the Home Office (including agencies), except for the prison service which is carrying out its own separate review. The new policy, which will come into force on 1 April 2002, will allow staff in all grades below the senior civil service to retire at any point between the ages of 60 and 65.

The Home Office (including agencies but excluding the prison service) has also changed its recruitment policy as of 1 April 2002, to allow the recruitment of staff up to the age of 64 subject to their meeting normal standards of health. Provided that there is an expectation of a reasonable period of employment and a return on recruitment and training, the primary criterion for selection will be the ability of a candidate to carry out the duties of the vacant post. If the most suitable candidate happens to be over sixty years old, this should not prevent a candidate being offered the post.

In making these various changes, the Home Office is implementing the recommendations of the Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) report "Winning the Generation Game".

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